Sokushinbutsu

Sokushinbutsu ( 即身仏) are a kind of Buddhist mummy. The term refers to the
practice of Buddhist monks observing asceticism to the point of death and entering
mummification while alive.[1] They are seen in a number of Buddhist countries, but
the Japanese term "sokushinbutsu" is generally used.

It is believed that many hundreds of monks tried, but only 24 such mummifications
have been discovered to date. There is a common suggestion that Shingon school
founder Kukai brought this practice from Tang China as part of secret tantric
[2]
practices he learned, and that were later lost in China.

Contents
Origin The Sokushinbutsu of theThai
Japan Buddhist monk Luang Pho Daeng at
In popular culture Wat Khunaram, Ko Samui, Thailand

See also
References
Further reading
External links

Origin
There is the existence of at least one "self-mummified" 550-year-old corpse: that of
a Buddhist monk named Sangha Tenzin in a northern Himalayan region of India,
visible in a temple in Gue village, Spiti, Himachal Pradesh.[3] This mummy was
discovered in 1975 when the old stupa preserving it collapsed and it is estimated to
be from about the 14th century, well after Islamic rule had arrived in India and
Buddhism had practically vanished there. The monk was likely a Tibetan dzogpa-
chenpo practitioner and similar mummies have been found in Tibet and East Asia.[4]
The preservation of the mummy for at least 5 centuries was possible due to the
aridity of the area and cold weather.[3]

According to Paul Williams, the Sokushinbutsu ascetic practices of Shugendō were

likely inspired by Kūkai – the founder of Shingon Buddhism,[5] who ended his life
by reducing and then stopping intake of food and water, while continuing to
meditate and chant Buddhist mantras. Ascetic self-mummification practices are also
recorded in China, but are associated with the Ch'an (Zen Buddhism) tradition
there.[5] Alternate ascetic practices similar to Sokushinbutsu are also known, such as
Sokushinbutsu (mummy) ofHuineng,
public self-immolation (auto cremation) practice in China, such as that of Fayu
in Shaoguan, Guangdong, China
Temple in 396 CE and many more in the centuries that followed.[6] This was
considered as evidence of a renunciantbodhisattva.[7]

Japan
A mountain-dwelling version of Buddhism calledShugendō emerged in Japan as a syncretism between Vajrayana, Shinto and Taoism
in the 7th century, which stressed ascetic practices.[8] This tradition continued through the Edo period. One of its ascetic practice was
Sokushinbutsu (or Sokushin jobutsu), connoting mountain austerities in order to attain Buddha-nature in one's body. This practice was
perfected over a period of time, particularly in the Three Mountains of Dewaregion of Japan, that is the Haguro, Gassan and Yudono
mountains.[8] These mountains remain sacred in the Shugendō tradition to this day
, and ascetic austerities continue to be performed in
the valleys and mountain range in this area.[8][9]

In medieval Japan, this tradition developed a process for Sokushinbutsu, which a monk completed over about 3,000 days to ten
years.[8] It involved a strict diet calledmokujikigyo (literally, "eating a tree").[10][9] The diet abstained from any cereals, and relied on
pine needles, resins and seeds found in the mountains, which would eliminate all fat in the body.[10][3] Increasing rates of fasting and
meditation would lead to starvation. The monks would slowly reduce then stop liquid intake, thus dehydrating the body and shrinking
all organs.[10] The monks would die in a state of jhana (meditation) while chanting the nenbutsu (a mantra about Buddha), and their
body would become naturally preserved as a mummy with skin and teeth intact without decay and without the need of any artificial
preservatives.[10][3] Many Buddhist Sokushinbutsu mummies have been found in northern Japan and estimated to be centuries old,
while texts suggest that hundreds of these cases are buried in the stupas and mountains of Japan.[9] These mummies have been
[9]
revered and venerated by the laypeople of Buddhism.

One of the altars in the Honmyō-ji temple of Yamagata prefecture continues to preserve one of the oldest mummies - that of the
sokushinbutsu ascetic named Honmyōkai.[11] This process of self-mummification was mainly practiced in Yamagata in Northern
Japan between the 11th and 19th century, by members of the Japanese Vajrayana school of Buddhism called Shingon ("True Word").
enlightenment.[12]
The practitioners of sokushinbutsu did not view this practice as an act of suicide, but rather as a form of further

In popular culture
The practice was satirized in the story "The Destiny That Spanned wo
T Lifetimes" by Ueda Akinari, in which such a monk was found
centuries later and resuscitated. The story appears in the collectionHarusame Monogatari.[13]

See also
Buddhist mummies
Immured anchorite
Luang Pho Daeng: A 20th-century monk mummy in Thailand
Prayopavesa: A parallel practice in Hinduism
Rainbow body
Sallekhana: A parallel practice in Jainism
Suicide in Japan
Embalming
Plastination

References
1. Jeremiah, Ken. Living Buddhas: The Self-mummified Monks of amagata,
Y Japan. McFarland, 2010
2. Aaron Lowe (2005). "Shingon Priests and Self-Mummification"(https://web.archive.org/web/20130829061915/http://
www.agorajournal.org/2005/Lowe.pdf)(PDF). Agora Journal. Archived fromthe original (http://www.agorajournal.org/
2005/Lowe.pdf) (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-12-14.
3. A 500 year old Mummy with teeth(http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20150501-a-500-year-old-mummy-with-teeth),
BBC News
4. Ken Jeremiah (2010), Living Buddhas: The Self-mummified Monks of amagata,
Y Japan, McFarland, pages 36-37
5. Paul Williams (2005). Buddhism: Buddhism in China, East Asia, and Japan(https://books.google.com/books?id=VHj
5DWDJjnIC&pg=PA362). Routledge. pp. 362 with footnote 37.ISBN 978-0-415-33234-7.
 6. James A. Benn (2007).Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism(https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=dWL6EEkL8goC). University of Hawaii Press. pp. 33–34, 82–84.ISBN 978-0-8248-2992-6.
7. James A. Benn (2007).Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism(https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=dWL6EEkL8goC). University of Hawaii Press. pp. 112–114.ISBN 978-0-8248-2992-6.
8. Ken Jeremiah (2010), Living Buddhas: The Self-mummified Monks of amagata,
Y Japan. McFarland, pages 10-11
9. Tullio Federico Lobetti (2013).Ascetic Practices in Japanese Religion(https://books.google.com/books?id=3W2_AA
AAQBAJ). Routledge. pp. 130–136.ISBN 978-1-134-47273-4.
10. Ken Jeremiah (2010), Living Buddhas: The Self-mummified Monks of amagata,
Y Japan, McFarland, pages 11-14
11. Tullio Federico Lobetti (2013).Ascetic Practices in Japanese Religion(https://books.google.com/books?id=3W2_AA
AAQBAJ). Routledge. pp. 132–133.ISBN 978-1-134-47273-4.
12. "Sokushinbutsu - Japanese Mummies"(http://www.jref.com/japan/culture/religion/sokushinbutsu.shtml).
JapanReference.com. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
13. Paul Gordon Schalow, Janet A. Walker The Woman's Hand: Gender and Theory in Japanese W omen's Writing
1996, p. 174. "Most likely, Akinari's principal source for "The Destiny That Spanned Two Lifetimes" was "Sanshu
amagane no koto" (About the rain bell of Sanshu [Sanuki province]), from Kingyoku neji-bukusa (The golden
gemmed twisted wrapper; 1704)."

Further reading
Hori, Ichiro (1962). "Self-Mummified Buddhas in Japan. An Aspect of the Shugen-Dô ("Mountain Asceticism") Sect".
History of Religions. 1 (2): 222–242. doi:10.1086/462445. ISSN 0018-2710. JSTOR 1062053.
Hijikata, M. (1996). Nihon no Miira Butsu wo a Tzunete. [Visiting Japanese Buddhist Mummies]. T okyo: Shinbunsha.
Jeremiah, K. (2009). Corpses: Tales from the crypt. Kansai Time Out, 387, 8-10.
Jeremiah, Ken (2007)."Asceticism and the Pursuit of Death by W arriors and Monks". Journal of Asian Martial Arts.
16 (2): 18–33.
Matsumoto, A. (2002). Nihon no Miira Butsu. [Japanese Buddhist Mummies].okyo: T Rokkō Shuppan.
Raveri, M. (1992). Il corpo e il paradiso: Le tentazioni estreme dell’ascesi. [The Body and Paradise: Extreme
Practices of Ascetics]. Venice, Italy: Saggi Marsilio Editori.
The Japanese Art of Self-PreservationErika Nesvold 30 November 2015

External links
Daruma Forums - photos and descriptions of travelling to see Sokushinbutsu
http://sites.google.com/site/selfmummifiedmonks/- Pictures of self-mummified monks.
Dunning, Brian (4 November 2008). "Skeptoid #126: The Incorruptibles". Skeptoid. Retrieved 22 June 2017.

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